


From Before and Until the End

by JaneSkylark



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 09:30:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19423213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaneSkylark/pseuds/JaneSkylark
Summary: AOGG: Anne and Gilbert marry. Short one-shot.





	From Before and Until the End

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!

When the morning comes for her it’s soft. Light pools on the floor from the window and catches the edge of the dress that hangs on the door. The light reflects off small pearls and sequins making it sparkle like the lake of shining waters Anne thinks as she lays in bed admiring the design as small rainbows dance across the floor. 

Birds chirp lightly from the branches outside the window and she wonders if they are singing just for her. Maybe Gilbert has his own birds outside his window championing him she wonders. She can see him clearly in her mind. She has been in his room only a handful of times but she imagines him awake, sitting at his desk facing the same sun that she does. It wasn’t something she thought of in her youth but it was a thought that comforted her during their courtship and engagement. Their rooms faced the same direction so every morning they greeted the same sunrise and every evening the same sunset. So even though they were separated by fields, flowers, distances and time they were always in a way at the same place. 

She imagined him running his hands through his hair. He would be nervous this morning, she is sure. Nervous that perhaps his suit wasn’t pressed. Or nervous about reciting his vows in front of so many people. Gilbert was never one for shyness in their youth but she knows his quiet calmness can lend itself to his nerves. She smiles at the thought of him nervous and can see him in her mind standing and pacing his room. His dark hair swept across his forehead as he tugs it back while a beautiful blush rises to his cheeks. 

She sighs, dreamily and stretches her arms out wide, beckoning her imaginary groom towards her but grasps a pillow instead and clutches it to her chest. Laying back and dreaming about the day before her as the birds continue singing, happily outside.

****  
When the morning comes for him it’s dark. Gray clouds hang heavy overhead and he thinks that if it rains today then he’ll never forgive the sun. He imagines himself running out into the field and using all of his power to demand that the sun come out and shine. Air will fill his lungs and he will bellow until the clouds recede back to where they came. He doesn’t have to dwell on this predicament long though as dawn nears and birds awaken, the clouds creep back into the darkened distance.

When he’s finally at his desk the sun has risen and warms his room but he doesn’t notice. He’s working on a letter for Anne but everything he writes feels stiff and formal. He wants her to know what’s in his heart, he wants her to know everything. Anne was always the writer, not him but he finishes the letter and seals it. But instead of putting it in his jacket pocket like he had planned he places it in a box in his closet.

His suit hangs on the door. A new suit bought for him by his father and tailored by his mother. It’s a deep inky blue with a vest and a crisp white shirt. This is the first day he’ll wear that suit but it won’t be the last and every time he wears, he’ll always remember this first day and his wedding to Anne.

She hasn’t seen the suit and he might not think a bride would think much of the groom’s suit but this is Anne and she will have imagined their wedding in every scenario just like he has. He’s imagined her dress all sorts of ways every time he saw a magazine and or had been to another wedding. He doesn’t know what style she picked but he knows one thing, she’ll be the most beautiful bride he has ever seen. 

He isn’t wrong. 

****  
Anne is dressed. Her hair is tied up with ribbons and flowers. She smoothes the front of her gown down and Marilla picks nonexistent lint from her shoulder while Diana is drying happy tears from her eyes as she gets the veil ready.

Like a crown being adorned on her head, Anne’s veil is pinned into place. She is a bride she thinks. She thought she would be nervous, even expected nerves about her nerves but she feels so calm in this moment, so ready. 

As a child she had imagined her wedding so different. Imagined a grand parlor with trumpets blaring, flowers cascading over balconies and arriving in a horse drawn coach. But her girlhood musings don’t compare to this day. In all of her dreams, there were never people she could imagine but today she has family and friends surrounding her and a groom whom she loves more than she ever thought she could love another person. She’ll walk down the stairs in the home she grew up in. She’ll marry under the trees that she climbed as a child and in the distance, there is a lake where two separate hearts put aside old differences, became friends and took their first steps towards this treasured day.

No, nothing she dreamed as a child comes close to the perfect reality of this day.

****  
He first glimpses a flash of red hair as she rounds the column by the house and he holds his breath. Then before anytime at all has passed, he’s staring straight at her as she stands at the end of the aisle. For this one brief moment it’s only them and then everyone is standing, the music is playing and she’s coming towards him bathed in light, lace and flowers in her hair.

Her veil covers her face but it’s sheer enough that he can see the pink in her cheeks and the green of her eyes. He smiles and something squeezes his heart and he’s sure it might explode so he takes a breath to calm the beats. Nothing will ever compare to this moment he thinks.

For years he has waited, wished for time to move more quickly for him to see her again, for her to be ready and now right in this moment he would give anything for time to stop. For seconds to move like minutes to keep them like this until he’s savored every detail of the lace on her dress, his ring on her finger and the way she is looking at him now, but time doesn’t stop so she’s standing in front of him now and he’s holding his breath again. 

For a split second he worries this is a dream, that they’re still school children and she’s not speaking to him but before the panic takes hold, she takes her warm hand and grabs his as she turns to face the minister. He looks down at her small hand in his larger one and realizes with certainty that now he’ll never have to let go.

*****  
When time moved on it moved on without notice. Days turned to weeks, weeks to months and months to years. Soon the house that was always bubbling with activity of kids running and laughing, was silent. Not in a somber sadness but in a restful peace. Red and brown hair had turned to gray and hands that held fast lightened in weakness. 

Anne rifled through the box’s contents. The box is worn and is mostly Gilbert’s belongings. Old school cards and a few photos. Her fingers brush across a yellowed letter with her name on the outside but she doesn’t recognize it. It’s aged like they have but the seal remains intact on the back. 

She should ask him, she knows that she should but it is addressed to her she reasons so she slides a long finger inside and breaks the seal. She unfolds the page and notices their wedding date at the top and drops of ink dotted throughout the page where he hesitated over his words.

 _Anne, of all the things I’ve held in my hands I have most cherished holding you. I wanted this note to be perfect. To be filled with declarations of this fantastic love that I have for you. To make you dizzy with happiness and to long for me like I long for you. I wanted words to fill this page that rivaled the constellations. I wanted this note to be promises that I would make about our life together but I’m no poet, Anne. I can’t ensure our days will be perfect or long. I can’t promise that there won’t be storms in our skies or darkness at our door. But I can promise that I will love you every day of our life together and every day after. I will share my dreams with you and I want you to share yours with me. Then we will build them together. Know that this morning I woke up as one man with one soul, one heart and a singular purpose but tonight I’ll go to sleep a soul with two hearts and a purpose that entwines us both together as one._  
_Always yours. From before and until the end, Gilbert_


End file.
